cav551:
What I think is so amusing is all the celebrations by the SNP and their 56 MPs, talk of their opposition to cuts and Nicola Sturgeon’s influence on the course of the next parliament. What rubbish they are a total irrelevance, Cameron has a majority, he can ignore them and do exactly as he pleases; which is what he will do. None of the other parties is going to have a serious attempt to bring down this tory government for the simple reason that they cannot afford the cost of running another election campaign; whereas Cameron merely has to snap his fingers and and the CBI will ensure that his party coffers are overflowing.
The “Sheriff of Nottingham” has indeed returned.
To paraphase the Alan Rickman incarnation…
“We treat the people like dirt, and they vote us back in with a Majority!”
Immigration will alter the demographics by 2020 that will expose the fact that the underlying problem with demographics in this country - is that poor people sprog more than rich people, and have done for some time. Immigrants sprog more than home-grown Brits as well. With alternative outlets for this “silent & growing” population crushed this time around - by 2020 we’ll see a number of changes of attrition that make the 2020 result more scary than ever…
(1) More immigration, thanks to UKIP having no place in Government in the interim
(2) Less benefits for Home-Grown Brits, so they will eventually become indestinguishable (if they are not already) from “sponging immigrants”
(3) The “Grey Vote” that perhaps just nudged Cameron over the line this week - some of them are going to have popped their clogs by 2020, and won’t be there to “keep him in” come that day.
(4) The Pension scandal of “There’s no money - we nicked it all years ago” will become more apparent by 2020 when a whole lot of people close to retirement now will find out that there “defined contributions” pension plans are nothing more than a looted tomb - Look good when you’re already very dead within one - but look very bad when found totally empty when you expected to find a huge wedge there.
Labour’s Pension Grab took some of the money,
The Tory’s inability to punish and reform the financial system accounts for the rest that “isn’t there anymore”.
A pension fund making 1% per year with 2% overhead charges applied - gets less and less each and every year - so the people furthest from retirement right now will feel it the worst, but until “final salary” schemes stop maturing as they continue to do so at present, the public are shielded from this scandal-in-waiting.
Right now, if an individual such as one of us “retires” and finds their pension “disappointing” let’s say… Everyone will say “Well, you picked the wrong plan bud” or “Everyone else’s seemed to do allright bud” - basically “I’m alright Jack” - that old Tory ideal.
Fast forward to 2020 when the majority of maturing pensions by this point will be “depleted” at best - leaving those who’ve paid in over-the-odds amounts for years and years - facing not only an impoverished retirement through no fault of their own - but a public who say “Hah! That’s YOUR fault - You picked the wrong plan! - I’m alright jack!” still.
There’s already an indisious movement within Toryism who want the public to think of pensioners as “another branch of benefit scroungers”…
This, I believe is to “set up the public psyche” for when this scandal eventually breaks…
"Hey my pension has been looted a lot more than I thought!
“It’s all Labour’s pension grab in the early naughties…”
“erm… but what about all the money I’ve paid in over the ensuing years, most of them under Osbourne?”
“It’s all Labours pension grab in the early naughties…”
“But what about the charges put to each pension pot every year that are more than the profit they made on the fund that year?”
“It’s all Labour not reforming the banking system in the wake of the 2008 crisis”
“I’ve got nothing left! - I’ve paid into the system for years, and now I have nothing because you’ve let the (unreformed) financial system loot the lion’s share of the money away!”
“So…You’re a benefit scrounger now then my son… Everyone hates you - we’ve since engineered it that way. We’re a government of people that still have money - not those who used to vote for us, used to have money, but now do not… Be off with you oh worker of 50 years who really thought that us “pushing retirement age out further” was about increasing you pension. It wasn’t It was to defer you finding out (too late for you of course!) that you’ve been conned your whole life, and by the time you’ve found out - no one will listen to you like they didn’t listen to “other prophets of doom” like Nigel Farage over a decade ago…”
“I might as well commit suicide then… Yes. A Roman Exit seems to have the correct amount of “Dignitas” here…”
“We’ve got a tax for that…”
“No change” in terms of reforms that should have been done - but were not - are going to exact a heavier price under a government closer to the financial industry than the previous one. 
